Interlude: Meanwhile, With the Fleet.

Porphyrios and the combined Fleet had sailed as fast as they could while maintaining surprise by taking a course further away from the Macedonian coast until the final approach, so as to avoid giving any indication to the Old Macedonian Fleet at Amphipolis that the Combined Epirote-Aetolian Fleet was in the area. It had added almost a full week to their voyage, but now, as the dawn broke on the 10th day of the war, Porphyrios knew that it had been the correct decision.

"What do you think?" Asked Antiochus the Lesser, Aetolian Liason to the Epirote Fleet. Antiochus was a small, wiry, man who was an expert shot with his sling. He was called as such to distinguish him from his cousin, Antiochus the Greater, a large, bulky, man serving as a phalangite captain with the Aetolian Army in mainland Macedon.

"See that Island at the mouth of the river there?" Responded Porphyrios.

"I do." Affirmed Antiochus.

"Amphipolis is on the the landward side of the Island, their fleet is all bottled up in the anchorage in the river mouth, its crews asleep. I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to raid the gold and silver stores here." Grinned Porphyrios.

"I see. Do we blockade?" Asked Antiochus.

"With most of the ships, yes. I have a specialist group going into the river mouth." Nodded Porphyrios.

"I see. Shall we get this started then?" Queried Antiochus.

Porphyrios turned to his pyrseia operator and ordered, "Signal the combined fleet, begin phase 1!"

His pyrseia operator saluted and took up his banners to signal the rest of the fleet. . .

XXXX

Delegos Argurion stood on the bastion of the Harbor Tower of Amphipolis. As commander of the Fleet, he was essentially Governor of Amphipolis in all but name. He felt it was fitting for someone such as him, a cousin of Demetrios Poliorcetes, himself King of Macedon in all but name. He smiled as he read over the mining reports from the Pangaion Hills. Gold production was down, but silver production was up slightly as a new vein was recently found and mining began.

Even with the current war with that upstart Pyrrhus and those vultures in the Aetolian League, there was no doubt in Delegos' mind that the war would be fought far from Amphipolis. Even if Pyrrhus wanted to send his fleet, any sane course from Epirus to Amphipolis would take the Upstart's fleet close enough to the main Macedonian Coast to sound the alarm well in advance of any attack on Amphipolis. As he took a sip of wine, Delegos mused that any course that tried to avoid such a fate would certainly see any opposing fleet still days away. He had no need to worry about an attack today.

He took another sip only for the alarm from the town below to go off, bronze bells ringing out their warning in the dawn air. He spat out the fine Carthagenian vintage and raced over to the edge of the crenelations. Far in the distance, on the other side of the Island, a line of warships was unfolding across the river mouth, even as the alarms ringing sent the sailors of his fleet scrambling out of their bunks and for their ships. Streams of men piled out of dockside barracks with whatever equipment they could don in a hurry, mostly little more than a helmet and xiphos. A group of troops burst up to the bastion as Delegos raced for the door to the inside of the tower, causing a near collision.

"Don't bowl me over you dolts! Get on the Ballista!" Ordered Delegos.

The leader of the quartet of troops saluted as they began to maneuver one of the trio of ballistae mounted on the harbor tower's bastion into position to fire at any incoming ships. Delegos took 1 last look at the battlefield, noting that a few of his triremes were starting to get underway. It was too late, however. The river mouth had been completely cut off and now a dozen small liburnians were streaming down the river toward his slowly awakening fleet.

"What are they doing? Those liburnians won't beat our fleet, even bottled up." Frowned Delegos.

The liburnians sailed on regardless, even as the quartet of soldiers began firing ranging shots at the liburnians and another pair of ballistae crews arrived on the roof and began maneuvering their ballistae into position. Just before the liburnians reached the bottled-up fleet, their extremely small crews jumped into the river. That was when Delegos realized what the Epirote goal was here.

"Fire ships!" He hissed in panic, eyes wide as saucers.

Then whatever mechanism that the fire ships used to ignite their combustibles activated and the naval depot was awash in flames. . .

XXXX

Philoctetes Trichotos was a Marine and had been for over a decade. He was damn good at it too, if he said so himself. However, 1 thing he'd never done before was fight a pitched battle on land. Oh sure, you had the occasional raid, but he'd never had to draw up in a phalanx to fight a coastal Polis' garrison before. He'd mostly only fought skirmishes on land, at most! By Hades, it was only due to contingency planning that the marines even had sarissas on this voyage! Usually, they fought with dory spears or whatever sidearms everyone had!

Nevertheless, he found himself falling into formation with the rest of the Marine contingent of the combined fleet as they stared at the garrison of Amphipolis mustering beneath the walls of their polis. Apparently, the big plan that the various Strategoi and Kings cooked up had done such an amazing job of taking out the Macedonian Fleet and opening a breach in the walls of Amphipolis that instead of surrendering or holing up in the harbor tower like sensible people, the Garrison decided they were going to face their fears by drawing up for battle.

"Looks like 4,000 of them and only 3,500 of us. Makes me glad we got these steel shields and armor." He frowned.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, we drill more often than the garrison of some backwoods Thracian Polis too, I'd imagine." Sniffed Cleomenes Erythron, his rowmate in the file next to him. Cleomenes' father had hit it big in the dye market last year and the money had gone to Cleomenes' head. The twit now fancied himself a noble.

Philoctetes was about to tell Cleomenes to shut his gob and stop trying to act like a nobleman when the horns sounded the advance. There was no more time to bandy words about as the phalanxes barreled towards each other. Most of the battle was a blur to Philoctetes. He knew he'd been pushed up to the front ranks shortly into the battle, the 2 men in the file ahead of him having gone down. He knew he'd broken his opponent's sarrisa against his steel shield. He knew his own sarissa had found purchase in the gut of his opponent, parting the links of poor quality iron mail and sinking in on a good thrust. He also knew he'd taken a slingstone to the helmet shortly after and it was only the fine steel construction of his gear that had saved his head from exploding like a melon. Everything after that was a blur.

He woke up an unspecified time later inside the town with Old Hippocrates, the ship's physician looming over him. "Good. You're awake. I thought I would make sure you did not need to be carried back to the ship." Nodded the Old Sawbones.

"We won?" Asked Philoctetes.

"Not just won, the fleet exceeded all expectations. Not only did we take the town and disperse the garrison, not only did we destroy the old Macedonian fleet at anchor, but we have captured the gold and silver storehouses completely intact, and we have even taken a cousin of Demetrios Poliorcetes prisoner! It took the whole day just to transport the loot back to the ships!" Smirked Old Hippocrates.

"I missed all that? Was there a feast I missed too?" Groused Philoctetes.

"Yes, in fact, prepared from the kitchens of the governor's palace. Fortunately for you, you have considerate comrades." Nodded Old Hippocrates.

"What do you mean?" Queried Philoctetes.

"Young Cleomenes stopped by for you with this. Don't drink it all. We're setting sail again tomorrow." Intoned Old Hippocrates as he handed over an amphoriskai of wine. There was punic writing on the ceramic of the amphoriskai.

Philoctetes grabbed the amphoriskai, pulled out the stopper, and took a deep sniff. "Carthaginian?" He asked, surprised.

"Indeed. Now if you're fine, I have other patients who need the bed." Shooed Old Hippocrates.

Philoctetes grinned as he wandered out of the makeshift infirmary with an amphoriskai of the finest wine known to civilization. He took a long pull and savored the taste.

It tasted like victory. . .

XXXX

The next day, everyone was loaded up onto the fleet. Some of the wounded had to be carried aboard by stretcher, as the garrison had put up a stiff fight even though they had no hope of winning a pitched engagement. Porphyrios wasn't concerned about that, though. Wounded marines were bad news, but compared to all the good news coming out of this attack, it was hardly significant.

The combined Epirote-Aetolian fleet had exceeded all of King Pyrrhus' expectations. They'd destroyed the old Macedonian Fleet at anchor, now all that was left to Macedon were half-built or half-crewed ships of the New Fleet they were building. They scattered a garrison 4,000 strong that would not be able to reinforce Demetrios' Army even if he desperately needed them to. The biggest catch, however, was all the loot. In addition to saleable goods like Carthagenian wine or spices such as Bithynian marjoram and Paphlagonian black mustard, the fleet also made off with an estimated 200 talents worth of gold and silver collected from the mines in the Pangaion Hills.

It was enough wealth to buy a whole new army or fleet. They'd even had to press a few transport ships from the merchant harbor into service to carry it all. As the combined fleet set sail from the devastated city of Amphipolis, there was only 1 thing on Porphyrios' mind.

He had to get this wealth back to Ambracia or die trying. . .

XXXX

AN: Sorry for the delay getting this out.

Now you see what the Fleet's super secret operation was. To raid the gold and silver collection depot at Amphipolis and take out as much of the old Macedonian Fleet there as was practicable.

Amphipolis was a major center of power for Macedon because it's where the gold and silver from the mines a little further inland in the Pangaion Hills were collected and stored, waiting for shipping back to Macedon Proper. The mines there are a major fraction of Macedon's yearly revenue.

The fleet base and trade hub grew out of the collection warehouse. When Athens had control of the City, they only based a part of their fleet in Amphipolis. Athens still had the better infrastructure for a navy at home. Not so with Macedon. Cassander made Amphipolis his primary fleet base, building off the Athenian Fleet harbor there.

And of course, a large fleet means protected waters, so Amphipolis is also a local trade hub. Goods from as far away as Carthage have been found there during past excavations.

Anyway, next we'll be back with Pyrrhus. Stay tuned. . .